The Church – The Bride of Christ

Catholicim Pure.wordpress.com ^ | February 11, 2011 | Michael Voris

[Salvation]

The Church – The Bride of Christ

Posted on February 11, 2011 by mmvc

Many of you will have encountered Michael Voris, the Catholic layman with a mission, from his 5-minute videos entitled “The Vortex”. Through these regular short episodes, Voris aims to inform and educate fellow Catholics and those looking in from the outside. He exposes “lies and falsehoods” in the Church in a no-nonsense, no-holds-barred kind of way. Some love both his clean, crisp style and his message, while others are less fond of the messenger, but largely agree with what he has to say. And then there are those who don’t warm to either. Although he regularly highlights and calls to account the all too frail and fallible human element within the Church, one is left in no doubt that he is driven by a passion. A passion for the Bride of Christ.

In a recent episode of “the Vortex”, Michael Voris’ usual clarion call gives way to pure poetry in a love song for the Church:

“The Catholic Church is magnificent.

She stands like a great and noble city, a sparkling jewel – splendorous.

The Bride of Christ, loved from all Eternity in the Bosom of the Holy Trinity.

Presaged by Israel with the Father, purchased with the blood of the Son, brought into visible reality by the Spirit.

Brought into being in time, her destiny is now Eternity.

What existed from all time in the mind of the Father will be alive forever in the heart of the Father, through the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Church soars to the heavens in the depth of Her teachings.

She possesses infinity in a finite tabernacle.

She glories with the saints and angels in heaven even now as She lifts up her heart in the Eucharistic Sacrifice.

She lives and moves and has Her Being in the Divine Majesty.

She is raised up from the dust of the earth through the waters of baptism.

She lives in perpetual virginity through everlasting espousal to Christ.

She is the delight of the Lord of Lords and is the Bride of the King of Kings.

When She speaks, her honeyed voice is truth and goodness and beauty.

When She breathes, it is the air of courts of Heaven, the intoxicating fragrance of love.

THIS is the Church.

Our Blessed Lord would prepare nothing less than perfection for his Bride, as He prepared nothing less than perfection for His Mother.

This is the Bride of Christ, and She is worth fighting for. Her sons are summoned to defend Her honour, her daughters to proclaim Her beauty.

There is nothing more noble to which man can aspire, than to sit in Her courts and muse on Her Truth.

Through the deepest reality of love that God could offer man – Himself in the form of bread, His very humanity and divinity – we have noble blood now flowing through our veins.

The very DNA of God Himself joins to our DNA, literally transforming us into Christ. For this reason a man leaves his parents and clings to his wife, and the two become one flesh.

This is the great reality of the Holy Eucharist: that we have the very Blood of Christ flowing through our veins. His flesh becomes our flesh. We are prepared by slowly being transformed for our Heavenly home.

The Church makes possible for us the commandment that Our Blessed Lord gave to each of us: Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.

When the apostles heard their Master’s words, they were awestruck and said: But who then can be saved?

Our Lord answered them: For man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

This is why the Church exists, so that Almighty God may LOVE us into Eternity with Him.

So many people simply do not see the Church in this manner. This is a cause of continual sadness for those of us who do. It must continue to be a source of sadness for us, so we can stay motivated and energised to pray and preach and sacrifice.

The greatest gift this side of Eternity has been handed to those baptised into the Catholic Faith. Freely we have received, now freely we must give.

The Catholic Church is the door to eternal life, because it is so closely wedded to Christ Himself, as a husband to his wife, that the two have become one flesh: the same flesh.

So when Our Lord says of Himself that He is the Door, He refers also to His One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. He identifies with Her so closely and so freely, that He made no distinction between the Church and Himself when He confronted Saul on the road to Damascus and said: Saul, Saul why do you persecute ME?

One Lord. One Faith. One Baptism.

It is all contained in the Catholic Church, fully and completely.

This Truth – it’s worth fighting for.”

You know how sometimes you come across a gem you wish you’d been inspired or gifted enough to write yourself? For me the above falls into that category. Michael Voris’ piece is entitled “From the Heart”. Though the words are his, their truth and beauty will surely find an echo in many a faithful Catholic heart.

The original version of the transcript, delivered by Voris himself, can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUoxe_7Vm-k

[Salvation]

One Lord. One Faith. One Baptism.

It is all contained in the Catholic Church, fully and completely.

This Truth – it’s worth fighting for

[Salvation]

CNA -- St. Paul's Teachings on the Church as the Bride of Christ

Pope explores St. Paul's teaching on the Church as Bride of Christ

Pope Benedict XVI

Vatican City, Jan 14, 2009 / 11:05 am (CNA).- More than 4,000 people gathered in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall to hear Pope Benedict XVI deliver his continuing series of teachings on St. Paul, which today focused on the Apostle’s teaching about Christ as the head of the Church and the Church as his Bride.

As he began his Wednesday general audience, Pope Benedict explained that his reflections would focus on St. Paul’s “twin” letters of Colossians and Ephesians, which are “very close in their manner of expression, vocabulary, and exposition."

Similar in language, they are unique in developing the theme of Christ as "head" or kephalé of the Church. The Pope said that Christ “guides and is responsible for the Christian community as its leader and its Lord… The Church is subject to Him, both to follow His superior guidance and to receive all of the life that emanates from Him.”

Pope Benedict explained that Christ is considered as head of the heavenly powers and of the entire cosmos. Paul, he expounded, “says that God places Christ above every principality and power. His words assure us that Christ is above every hostile power, so that if we are close to him we have nothing to fear."

In the context of the entire cosmos being subject to Christ, the Holy Father referred to the depiction of Christ as "Pantocrator," shown enthroned over the world, on a rainbow. This depiction, the Pope said, "indicates His equality with God at Whose right hand He sits, and hence also His unrivalled role as the guide of human destinies.”

"Such a vision," he added, "can only be conceived by the Church, not in the sense that she wishes unduly to appropriate that which is not hers, but in another, dual, sense: both in that the Church recognizes that in any case Christ is greater than herself, because His lordship extends beyond her confines, and in that only the Church, and not the cosmos, is defined as the Body of Christ. This means we must give positive consideration to worldly things, because Christ recapitulates them in Himself, and at the same time we must fully live our specific ecclesial identity, which is the closest to the identity of Christ Himself."

Another aspect of the Apostle‘s two Letters is "the concept of mystery," "the inscrutable divine plan for the destiny of mankind, of peoples and of the world,” he said. It is for this reason that one “finds fulfillment in Christ,” the Holy Father noted.

Finally, the Holy Father touched on the recurring theme of "the Church as the bride of Christ.” According to St. Paul, the Pope said, Christ has "won" his bride, the Church, by giving his life for her, “the greatest possible demonstration of love."

“What greater sign of love could there be than this,” he remarked. Christ “is concerned for her beauty; not just the beauty acquired through Baptism, but also the beauty that must grow every day through a life of irreproachable moral behavior, without spot or blemish.”

"From here to the shared experience of Christian marriage is but a short step," he observed. “And in fact it is not clear what the initial point of reference was for the author of the Letter: whether the Christ-Church relationship provided a light in which to consider the union of man and woman; or whether experience of conjugal union was the light in which to examine the relations between Christ and the Church.”

"These two Letters are a great catechesis, from them we can learn how to be good Christians," Pope Benedict concluded.

"If we begin to understand that the cosmos is the mark of Christ, we understand what our relationship with the cosmos is, what problems are involved in its conservation. We learn to see it using reason, but a reason moved by love, respect and humility. If we remember that the Church is the Body of Christ, that Christ gave Himself for her, then we learn to live with Christ in mutual love, a love that unites us to God and brings us to see the image of Christ in others. Let us ask the Lord to help us meditate well on Sacred Scripture, his Word, and to really learn to live well.”

[Salvation]

Catholic Ping!

[Salvation]

The Church – The Bride of Christ
Catholic Identity Once Again
Essays for Lent: The Church
Woe to the Solitary Man – A Brief Meditation on our Need for the Church
Jesus and His Church Are One
How Old Is Your Church?

[Dutchboy88]

"It is all contained in the Catholic Church, fully and completely.

This Truth – it’s worth fighting for"

If it were the truth.

[Rashputin]

"If it were the truth.

And if it's not the truth, Protestantism is even worse and not worth the gas Luther passed while he drank beer and tossed parts of the Scripture into the trash can.

[Dutchboy88]

"And if it's not the truth, Protestantism is even worse and not worth the gas Luther passed while he drank beer and tossed parts of the Scripture into the trash can."

At least he recognized what the Scriptures taught, as opposed to the Roman men in the pointy hats & bathrobes. They've come up with one of the most cultish, demonic, useless organizations of self-aggrandizement this side of Islam.

[Natural Law]

"At least he recognized what the Scriptures taught..."

Then it makes his complete disregard for them even more sinister. Sola Scriptura is not scriptural.

You would be more credible if you refrained from ad hominem attacks on the Church and tried to substantiate your claims. Hoc est corpus meum, this is my body. Luther began with the premise that the authority of the Church must be broken and then manipulated Scripture to achieve that end. To achieve this he had to convince people that the priests did not have the capability of confecting the Eucharist which is the source and summit of Catholic faith.

He did this by eliminating Holy Thursday from the Protestant doctrine effectively separating the Last Supper from the Paschal mystery. In the Seder, the Jews make present the first Passover, they do not recreate it. Similarly, Catholics make present the one sacrifice during the Liturgy of the Mass. The parallel is real and intentional and we experience the Real Presence. He undermined the concept of “ex opere operato”, from the work of that which has been done, by changing it to “ex opere operandis”, out of the work of the minister, and then undermined the minister.

Nothing was beyond his ambitions to make of himself the preeminent Doctor of the Church, another Paul if you will. The elimination of books from the bible that clashed with his ideas, the diminishing of some calling them “epistles of straw” , and the reinterpretation of others were his means. He denied transubstantion and reduced the creation of God made in His own image to, in his own words, nothing more than a “pile of dung covered with snow”. His greatest sin was the attack on the idea of a communion of believers as the nature of man and the replacement of it with individualism that make each man his own pope and magisterium and set him at odds with all others.

Even the constant criticism of Catholics seen within these threads can be traced to Luther. The irony is not lost that the greatest criticism is of those Catholics who do not follow the tenets of Catholic faith, who ignore the teachings of the Church and the instructions of their bishops and live and vote a conscience developed completely within their own reason, effectively becoming Protestants.

Peace be with you

[Dutchboy88]

"You would be more credible if you refrained from ad hominem attacks on the Church and tried to substantiate your claims."

No, my FRiend, you would be believable at all if you could prove from the text (documents which pre-date the Roman abortion) that the Roman abortion is the "Church". It is your crazy cult which has started this unsubstantiated, self-proving, self-aggrandizing myth. The believers around here are simply calling it out.

The "once and for all" sacrifice will not and does not re-appear to anyone. Your cult again, crucifies to youselves the Son of God, and puts Him to open shame. This is the same despicable activity the Judaizers encouraged during the first century and Paul condemns it in the strongest of language. We repeat that condemnation. Shame on Rome.

The shadows were there simply to be pre-cursors, the celebration of bread and wine is simply to be a reminder. That your organization cannot read the simplest of Scriptures, "By this will we have been sanctified throught the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." Heb. 10:10 is only proof that the mythical traditions of men have overtaken you.

We call you out into the light of Jesus, alone...if He permits. Come find a peace that the rotting flesh of Rome cannot offer...if He allows.

[Natural Law]

"No, my FRiend, you would be believable at all if you could prove from the text (documents which pre-date the Roman abortion) that the Roman abortion is the "Church"."

I am no FRiend of those who profane the Church.